What did you expect?
I expected a better fight out of Werdum and
Kharitonov.
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I've always felt like Werdum is just too much a mellow BJJ guy, you know, sick mellow BJJ but not aggressive enough to get too far in MMA. I though Kharitonov was going to KO him but I was wrong. Werdum's strategy was interesting, back into the corner an eliminate Kharitonov 's ability to step to the side. If Werdum was more aggressive I think he could have stole the decision. I kind of wonder if Kharitonov was sick.
"...I kind of wonder if Kharitonov was sick..."
I thought that was a possibility. He was doing some
coughing and snorting between rounds, but fighters
do all kinds of weird shit to breathe better through
the sweat, blood, snot, etc.
Maybe he just flat out underestimated Werdrum. Werdum
hadn't really been tested yet (Erikson is a good win,
I guess, but that was Tom's first MMA fight in almost
three years), while Kharitonov had blown through Rua,
Schilt, and Rizzo, and gave one of Pride's "Big Three"
about as close a fight as you can have. Werdum
actually hits pretty hard but has NO confidence
standing up, and Kharitonov probably expected to KO
him pretty easily since Werdum's punching defense
looks like a combination of Ricardo Arona's and
Wladimir Klitschko's.
Instead, he had a harder time shucking off Werdum's
single than he probably thought (in the first round,
at least), gassed after the first ground exchange
(wore his arms out on the guillotines, maybe?), and
had problems dealing with Werdum's reach. Then on
top of the physical frustration, he had to deal with
the mental frustration that comes with fighting a
fighter who hasn't "come to fight" (at least in a
striker's eyes). And that "corner--jab--fake the
cross--shoot--fail--butt-flop" WAS frustrating to
watch. If Werdum had just a little more confidence
I think Sergei was there for the taking.
I think we learned a couple things, though. Werdum
is NOT the next Minotauro (Noguiera has never been
afraid to engage), and Kharitonov cannot beat Fedor
(not if he fights like that, anyway). After this
fight I was kind of hoping for Barnett to upset
Cro-Cop, just to shake things up a little bit, but
after tonight it's still pretty clear that
Pride's "Big Three" are still Fedor, Cro-Cop, and
Minotauro, wtih Fedor as the unbeatable king, and
things will probably be like that until at least
spring of next year.
Maybe Aleks can shake things up. Josh seems totally
uninterested in training hard for real fights (for
less pay?) after listening to his post-fight
comments on tonight's Pride. It's a shame, too,
because Barnett has a lot of toughness and talent.
The show was called "Starting Over" for a reason- to give the second tier fighters a chance to prove themselves.
Having said that, I'll reserve judgement until I have actually seen the fights (instead of online written reports unlike a lot of people on the forum!).
BTW, I saw Kharitonov walking in west-shinjuku on the Sat evening with his teammates, probably getting dinner. He didn't look sick.
This card was called Starting Over because almost every fighter was coming off a loss.
Don't be angry PolishPunisher, we said the fight was ok.
I think Cro Cop vs. Nog would be a good rematch now. Cro Cop is much improved on the ground. I think Kharitonov will probably fight Fedor next, maybe after another win, and get his ass kicked.
Barnett doesn't seem too interested in fighting which is too bad. He seemed mad about the loss and it sounded like he was mad at himself for his conditioning but projected it outward. He practically threatened to kick our asses at the end of the PPV.